I've been a little consumed by life and haven't been very open with how I've been feeling lately. Life is good - let's start with that, because it truly is. I'm blessed with good health, have amazing family and friends, have another who holds space for me in his heart, and I've got a steady job that keeps me on my toes. As I took Bikram today I noticed a well of emotions start to overwhelm me. No folks, it was not the extreme heat; it was a profound understanding of the choices that we make in life, the choices that I've made in life. So join me as I dive into the rabbit hole of choices. As yes of course, these thoughts often come to me whenever I'm working through something on my mat, whenever I can be raw, volunerable, and completely exposed(mostly to myself).
Earlier today I chatted with my mother, one whom I often consult for advice and we started to discuss the choices we make. I shared with her how just last week, I was confronted with a truth that I've been avoiding for a while, and I was finally able to share that truth with the universe. Sharing my feelings and opinions also forced a choice in the moment. Whether we consciously or subconsciously realize it, we often make decisions without realizing that we doing just that. I'm a big fan of living in the moment, but it got me thinking ... We never really know how the choices we make today, in the here and now, are going to affect us down the road. And there's no sense in getting wrapped up in the future because that is a constant state of impermanence. The future is the now, as I often remind myself thanks to Osho. So, that got me to thinking, have I been making my choices in life for the moment? Or are they influenced by my imagation, aspirations, & dreams for the future? I decided to look up the exact meeting of the word choice.
CHOICE; in philosophy, a corollary of the proposition of free will—i.e., the ability voluntarily to decide to perform one of several possible acts or to avoid action entirely. An ethical choice involves ascribing qualities such as right or wrong, good or bad, better or worse to alternatives.
Determinism denies the reality of choice, because of a complete causal connectedness of motive and volition with physical, psychological, social, and even unconscious forces. Indeterminists insist, on the other hand, that human beings, however limited in choices, still are free to choose among alternatives and to put such choices into action. Thus volition (in this view) is, at least partly, independent of the strength of motivation, and itself determines which motive prevails.
The existential attitude in philosophy emphasizes such freedom of choice as well as the necessity of having to choose.
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Agruably, my choices are both a bit of the here and now, but also of my unconscious desires for the future. I am also the sum of my choices because I am my life and nothing else. Our choices today do shape the future in ways we can't understand, and I do believe we always have a path that's often unknown to us, but it's there and unfolding every day. We can make choices that funnel us into a specific direction, but life will always encourage us on this path, or present alternatives to get us back on that destined path. Maybe I've lost you a bit, but maybe you're following along. Thanks for listening. XX